Kinder Quilt

It's finished .... finally!!!


I don't know why I left it unfinished for so long!


I'm really looking forward to giving it to the Junior Class tomorrow.


I can't wait to see them all searching for their own little faces in the balloons.


It will be a gift in honour of Jewish New Year (beginning officially tomorrow night).


Wishing you all a sweet and creative (Jewish) new year.

Shana Tova

Andi :-)

Waiting

....waiting



...waiting




....waiting



....for my new baby to arrive...... TOMORROW!!!!


She will be a VERY busy member of our household.
What should we name her?

Andi :-)

Kinder Quilt Planning

Here's my idea for a kinder quilt.

• The 2 little characters will be printed out on fabric and appliqued on. (The child on the left has the kinder logo on his t-shirt)
• Each balloon will contain a face of one of the children in the class.
  

Edit: Here's an example of a 'photoshopped' face which can then be cut out in a balloon shape.

• All other fabrics will be plains.

What do you think? Any creative suggestions?
In particular, what can I add to the boring bottom-right corner?

Thanks for your help.

Andi :-)

More memories for Jake

When Jake turned 3, I made him a quilt full of family photos (just like I'm doing for Ella's 3rd birthday).

I discovered the most fabulous product called Miracle Fabric Sheets which allow you to print directly onto white cotton fabric using your own colour inkjet printer. Heaven!! I'm sure there are many other products that do a similar thing but I stumbled upon this one and really love it.

Since then, I have used them rather a lot. For example:

A fun quilt for my son's kindergarten room with faces of all the kids in his class

An attempt to go a bit 'Andy Warhol'

More recently, I have begun working on a quilt for Jake's 5th birthday. He is a total train nutter. Still obsessed with anything remotely train-related and, of course, all things Thomas the Tank Engine.

Now that Jake's fine motor skills are developing, he has begun to write his name (with a very sweet backwards 'J') and drawing .... trains of course.

So, I have incorporated some of these images into the quilt by scanning them into the computer and printing on to my Miracle Fabric Sheets. (Apologies for the very over-exposed photos).

Not finished yet, but his birthday is in January. Plenty of time to go.

My main worry is that he loves the fabric I chose for the backing even more than the front.

Oh well. What would a 5 year old boy know?

Until next time ..... happy quilting.

Andi :-)

Flower Gardens

In my first post, I promised to tell about my grandmother's "Flower Garden" quilt. Well, here goes.

My grandmother (Mama) was always very creative and crafty. She painted (oil paintings, ceramic painting, silk painting and more). She sculpted. And she sewed. She embroidered. And she made one quilt.

She hand patched this beautiful quilt top with the tiniest little stitches. It took her about a year to finish it.

At the time I was about 8 years old. She showed me how to cut patches, sew them together. I remember making a rather small and design-less piece. I wish I knew where it ever got to.

After finishing the quilt top, she had it "professionally" quilted. It was a pretty ordinary end result, with a nasty green nylon backing. But it was always on her bed and she loved it.

When she died in 1999, she left her quilt to me, knowing I was the only one of her 18 grandchildren who would really appreciate it. I decided to have it requilted.

I didn't do anything about it until 2007 when I started an evening class with the lovely Judy Newman at my favourite place, Amitie in Bentleigh. I was very clear with Judy at the time. "I am a patchworker. I DON'T quilt".

Judy is a wise teacher and cleverly convinced me to have a go at hand-quilting it myself to honour my grandmother. Well, needless to say, Judy now has me hooked on hand quilting.

Here is a look at my efforts with Mama's quilt (with a gorgeous new vintage look backing).

My Uncle Brian says "it's the first rug I've ever seen that's more like a tombstone". Thanks Uncle Brian!

Well, more recently, I have been working on a gift for my daughter Ella's third birthday which is coming up in November. I have called it "Ella's Flower Garden" and it incorporates my latest favourite quilt style ....... memory quilting. I think that often memory quilts look really tacky but when you modify the images so they actually blend in with the other fabrics, the results can be lovely.

I think Mama would have approved. Ella certainly does.

Have a lovely Wednesday.

Andi :-)